This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1817 edition. Excerpt: ...of the difficulty of this language is only surpassed by that entertained of its singularity; and who can avoid taxing the man with imprudence and temerity, who engages in such a difficult study, without being certain of making some progress, and of being at some time sufficiently recompensed for his trouble! Therefore, before hazarding the first steps in a career so little frequented, it is proper to take a rapid view of these different opinions to judge which are correct, which exaggerated. This first lecture will be consecrated to this examination. In ascending to the motives which animated those among Europeans who first devoted themselves to the study of the Chinese lauguage, it is found that the principal and most powerful has been the desire to propagate Christianity among that nation: and the necessity of investigating its religious opinions for combatting them. Thus the knowledge of Chinese was at first the exclusive possession of the missionaries. Many very distinguished scholars who saw the utility that might result from this literature so new to the west, contented themselves with exalting its merif by their praises, or added nothing but errors to the documents furnished by the laborious evangelists. But towards the middle of the seventeenth century, the disputes that arose between the Jesuits and the Dominicans, relating to the ceremonies practised in China in honor of Confucius and his ancestors, having produced a multitude of contradictory writings, the name of the Chinese became popular and the questions that related to them passed from the theologians to the scholars of the age. At this period a fortunate chance collected in the Chinese mission, a considerable number of men no less estimable for their knowledge than their...

Reprint of the original, first published in 1842.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.